Heddle.



PATENTED MAY 12, 1908.

W. s. LAGKBY.

UNITED STATES PATENT orrion.

WILLIAM SHINN LACKEY, OF HADDO NFIELD, NEW JERSEY.

- HEDDLE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 12, 1908.

Application filed February 2, 1906, Serial No. 299,194. Renewed September 24, 1907. Serial No. 394,411.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM SHINN LAGKEY, citizen of the United States, residing at Haddonfield, Camden county, New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Heddles, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to heddles for looms and particularly to the construction of the eyes of said heddles, the pur ose being to prevent chafing, wear, or bg'ea ing of the war threads assin through the eyes, and to a low free om 0 movement of the heddles on the heddle frame rod. 1

The improvement relates to that class 0 heddles known as fiat steel or wire heddles. In this class-the inner walls'of the eyes and "the edges of the said eyes are left flat and sguare and the surfaces adjacent the said e g es are left rough and wiry, owing to the action of the dies which are used to stamp out orcut them. This roughness causes the warp threads to drag, to become chafed and often'to break in the warp eyes, and as regards the rod eyes, the same roughness prevents the heddles at this point from moving freely upon the rods. Heretofore, various means have been provided to remove this roughness, such as by rumpling or brushing with sand, but such methods have not been attended with, success, as no amount of rumplling or brushing will entirely remove the roug e ges from the eyes, and further than this, the heddles will not be of uniform finish and uniform'smoothness, or thickness.

My invention consists in the features hereinafter described and particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawin s,Figure 1 represents a front view of a he dle embodying my invention, and Fig. 2 is a cross sectional view enlarged at the warp eye.

In carrying out my invention, I providethe heddle eyes with rounded edges presenting contacting surfaces to the warp threads and heddle rods exactly similar to a perfectly cylindrical wire. In the drawing this rounded edge is indicated at 1, it being formed by the action of suitable dies which contact with the metal adjacent the o eningv of the eye and form it up into a-roun ed rib bordering the eye. The necessary pressure for formingthe rounded bead or rib at the margin of the eye is a graduated pressure and the result of the action of the dies or tools is not only to produce a smooth contacting surface for the warp thread passing through the eye, but also to strengt en the heddle at the eye, making it possible to use a much thinner metal than would otherwise be the case. This rounded bead or rib is also rovided at the eyes which engage the hed e rods as indicated at 2, the said rib or bead not only extending around the o ening of the eye, but also along the lon 'tu inal o ening extending from the eye to t e end of t e heddle. -The efiect of the rounded rib or bead at the rod eye is to permit the said heddle to have reater freedom of movement on the heddle:

a heddle of flat metal or wire of the minimum thickness, but strengthened at both the warp eye and the rod eye, said heddle having free- .dom of movement on the heddle rods and having no chafing or dragging contact with the warp thread.

It will be understood that the heddles when in place in the frame present their thread eyes in planes inclined in relation to the planes of the warps and thus the warps bear not upon the interior of the eye, but upon those portions of the edge of the eye lying substantially in the planes of the faces of the heddle adjacent the eye, and by reason of the round-wire-like edge resented at these points, all chafing of the t ead will be avoided.

An important advantage accrues from the use of the eyes formed with the bead as described in that the heddles can be employed with the finer gages of yarns, for as above stated, the reinforced eyes permit me to use metal which is much thinner than could otherwise be employed, and further as the bead is formed from the metal itself and is of the same or substantially the same diame ter as the thickness of the heddle, the heddles can lie close together.

It will be understood that where I have A heddle consisting of flat metal having In testimony whereof I aflix my signature an eye provided with a bead or rib fOIIn in presence of two witnesses.

from the metal of the heddle and extending 7 I along the edge of the metal, integral therewith ILLIAM ,SHINN LACKEY 5 and of substantially the same diameter as Witnessesz:

the thickness of the metal of the heddle, sub- A. P. RUTHERFORD,

stantially as described. R. W. LACKEY. 

